Wake Up To Politics - May 6, 2015
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Wednesday, May 6, 2015
553 Days Until Election Day 2016It's Wednesday, May 6, 2015, I'm Gabe Fleisher for Wake Up To Politics, and reporting from WUTP world HQ in my bedroom - Good morning: THIS IS YOUR WAKE UP CALL!!!
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2016 Central
- Race to 45: Numbers to Know Who’s up and who’s down in a Quinnipiac poll of Iowa Republican voters out today, compared to Quinnipiac’s last Iowa poll released February 25:
- Who’s Up Ted Cruz (+7%), John Kasich (+2%), Marco Rubio (+9%)
- Who’s Down Jeb Bush (–5%), Ben Carson (–4%), Chris Christie (–1%), Bobby Jindal (–1%), Rick Santorum (–2%), Scott Walker (–4%)
- Who’s Even Mike Huckabee, Rand Paul, Rick Perry
- FL Sen: DeSantis to Announce Bid Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) will announce today he is running for the U.S. Senate, giving conservatives a candidate in the race to replace Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), who is vacating the seat to run for president.
- DeSantis, who had $1.1 million cash on hand in his House account at the end of the first quarter and would likely receive support from conservative groups like the Tea Party Express and Senate Conservatives Fund, is the first Republican to enter the race. Others GOPers considering a bid include Lt. Gov. Carlos López-Cantera, former Sen. George LeMeiux, and Reps. Curt Clawson, David Jolly, John Mica, Jeff Miller, Dennis Ross, and Ted Yoho.
- Rep. Patrick Murphy has already announced on the Democratic side, and despite a possibly challenge from Rep. Alan Grayson, has been endorsed by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC).
Capitol Hill News
- Senate Schedule The Senate approved the House-passed budget agreement Tuesday, meaning both houses of Congress have approved a financial blueprint for the first time in four years.
- The Republican budget that was passed “gives the Pentagon a budget increase next year but keeps domestic funding below spending caps set out in a 2011 deficit reduction law…[and] includes language to repeal Obamacare, which of course the president will block,” Politico writes.
- And most importantly to Republicans: it balances the budget, a longtime GOP goal that hasn’t been achieved in at least 10 years.
- The Senate voted 51-48 to approve the resolution, a mostly party-lines vote. Just two Senate Republicans voted against the budget, both of them presidential candidates: Rand Paul (KY) and Ted Cruz (TX), who said there was not enough fiscal reforms included.
- Now, the upper chamber moves on to Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker’s Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act, which allows Congress to review and possibly reject a nuclear deal struck with Iran.
- Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell filed cloture on the bill Tuesday. This action cut off debate, and stopped two amendments that threatened the bill’s bipartisan support. One amendment was authored by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), and would have required a deal to certify that Iran is not involved in terrorist acts against Americans, and the other, requiring the deal to force Iran to recognize Israel, was proposed by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL).
- McConnell’s move to end debate sets up a cloture vote on the bill for Thursday, with final passage possible that day. With that, the Senate will move on to the next plank on McConnell’s agenda…the controversial trade deal supported by the White House and Republicans, but opposed by Obama’s own party, congressional Democrats.
Question of the Day
- Monday’s Answer Earlier this week, President Barack Obama was speaking at Lehman College, and the trivia question was: who is Lehman College named for?
- The answer is Herbert Lehman, who was Lieutenant Governor of New York from 1929 to 1932, under Governor Franklin Roosevelt, and when FDR left the office to become President, Lehman succeeded to it. He served as Governor from 1933 to 1942, before working for three years in FDR’s State Department, and then serving as a U.S. Senator from 1950 to 1957.
- Lehman was also the first Jewish governor of New York, and, along with his brothers, was a founding partner of Lehman Brothers, which remained a large investment bank into the 21st century.
- GREAT JOB… Steve Gitnik, Jim Wilbat, Rick Isserman, Janice Goodman, Marilyn Schapiro, and Joe Bookman!!! Thank you all for answering!
